As Omicron spreads, So. Oregon hospitals still feeling impact of Delta variant

JACKSON COUNTY, Ore. —Despite all the talk of late centered around the Omicron variant, Jackson County Public Health says hospitals are still dealing with the impact of the Delta variant. It brings stronger symptoms. With Delta hospitals were beyond capacity, due to Covid.

Jackson County Health Officer, Dr. Leona O’Keefe, says once Delta calmed down, the number of patients in the hospital with Covid decreased. That allowed other people needing hospital care for non-covid reasons, to get treatment at hospitals. They’re still busy treating those people.

“We haven’t recovered from our Delta surge yet, we still have people in the hospital getting their non-covid care, so we’re going into the Omicron surge right now with hospitals that are already pretty full not just with Covid patients but with non-Covid patients as well,” said Dr. O’Keefe.

Dr. O’Keefe anticipates the Omicron numbers will eventually surpass Delta locally.

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Jenna King is the 6pm and 11pm anchor for NBC5 News. Jenna is a Burbank, CA native. She graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in Sports Business. During her time at Oregon she was part of the student-run television station, Duck TV. She also grew her passion for sports through her internship with the PAC 12 Network. When Jenna is not in the newsroom you can find her rooting for her hometown Dodgers, exploring the outdoors or binging on the latest Netflix release.
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